Russian Sex Sting

American diplomat Brendan Kyle Hatcher, a 34-year-old married State Department employee who serves as a liaison with religious and human rights groups in Russia, is at the center of a purported sex video recorded in a Moscow hotel room.

Independent News Agency-Khakassia

Russian Sex Sting

American diplomat Brendan Kyle Hatcher, a 34-year-old married State Department employee who serves as a liaison with religious and human rights groups in Russia, is at the center of a purported sex video recorded in a Moscow hotel room.

Independent News Agency-Khakassia

Russian Sex Sting

American officials say the Russian intelligence agency that replaced the KGB, the Federal Security Service, produced the video in an attempt to either recruit or discredit Hatcher.

ABC News

Russian Sex Sting

U.S. officials say the tape was posted online last month on a supposed Russian internet news site after Hatcher rejected a Russian blackmail approach, known as "honey traps" - when Russian intelligence attempts to entrap a foreign diplomat with sex for extortion or recruitment. The news site hosting the tape has no known reporters, and many Russian journalists believe is closely tied to the Federal Security Service. The Russian Foreign Ministry declined comment to ABC News.

ABC News

Russian Sex Sting

The video begins with surveillance video of Hatcher on a darkened street with a cell phone in his hand. Audio of Hatcher speaking with several women in Russian is dubbed over the scene and a still photograph of a topless woman is posted over the video. A senior State Department official says this may be the most disturbing element of the video - surveillance video of Hatcher walking Moscow streets some five years ago. Hatcher, according to the official, traveled to Moscow as a tourist years before he worked for the U.S. government.

ABC News

Russian Sex Sting

The video shows footage of Hatcher recorded with a camera hidden in the ceiling of a hotel room. The lights are on and Hatcher is seen on the bed in his underwear.

ABC News

Russian Sex Sting

Then the video cuts to the same room without the lights on and shows a man and a woman seemingly having sex on the bed. Hatcher denies he is the man seen in the darkened scenes, and U.S. officials say they believe him.

ABC News

Russian Sex Sting

U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle stands by Hatcher, saying he "has done nothing wrong." He said: "Clearly the video we saw was a montage of lot of different clips, some of them which are clearly fabricated...We had our security office back in Washington take a look at that and they are convinced Kyle has done nothing wrong. I have full confidence in him and he is going to continue his work here at the embassy."

ABC News

Russian Sex Sting

Former FBI counterintelligence agent David Majors is shown here watching the 'sex tape' during an interview with ABC News' Brian Ross. Majors, who ran operations against the KGB for more than 20 years at the FBI, said this video shows "the Bear is back." "The intelligence service of Russian is as aggressive and large as it was when we had to face them in the Cold War," he said. He says that while most Americans believed the struggle with Russian ended when the Berlin Wall fell, the KGB's new iteration, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, is as potent as its Soviet predecessor.